Tina Roland and Ron Clark of Burlington walk with other people fighting the heroin problem before a town hall meeting in Dayton, Ky., in April. / The Enquirer/Amanda Rossmann

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Northern Kentucky’s push to eradicate heroin is getting attention throughout Kentucky and Ohio as one that is making headway, fast.

Awareness and collaboration may be the key – concern by community leaders across Northern Kentucky helped create a heroin task force last fall that has the support of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. The task force pushed the state to pass a bill to treat users who have overdosed that has become a state model.

“What you see in Northern Kentucky is an unprecedented collaborative approach,” said Adam Caswell, vice president of public affairs for the N.Ky. Chamber of Commerce. “What works is bringing every stakeholder to the table – law enforcement, health care, business, individuals.”

It’s a model that could work in Ohio after its treatment law winds its way through the statehouse.

“I’m very impressed with the approach that Northern Kentucky has taken: a group from diverse backgrounds working on the issue,” said Ohio Sen. Eric Kearney, D-North Avondale. “There’s a lot of promise in that.”

Both states have made headway in legislation, but Kentucky’s naloxone law passed just months after the heroin work group formed. That group, the Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact and Response Workgroup, comprises leaders in business and family medicine, street cops and firefighters, treatment advocates and residents. The team formed last fall under the umbrella of Vision 2015, an organization that guides a common agenda for Northern Kentucky.

They pushed for the naloxone bill, which became state law in May. It allows physicians to prescribe the drug to people at high risk for opiate overdose and for bystanders to administer nasal naloxone without fear of arrest.

The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy in Frankfort is looking to Northern Kentucky’s effort as a state pilot program.

The Ohio House passed a naloxone bill last week that is expected to be reviewed by the Senate this week. Ohio’s bill will also allow first responders to administer naloxone. Kentucky will consider increasing naloxone access in the next legislative session.

Ohio legislators are also considering a bill that would make it easier to establish needle-exchange programs. The bill passed the House earlier this month.

Even with the progress, Kearney said, “Ohio is moving very slowly.”

New Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell recently told The Enquirer he favors a broad approach to the heroin scourge.

“Certainly our main role is to enforce the law, and possession of heroin is a felony. So we will do what we need to do from that level,” Blackewell said. “However, we do realize – we’re smart enough to know – that we are not going to arrest away the heroin epidemic in Cincinnati. It’s just not (that) simple of a problem.

“There has to be a more multi-tiered approach or a more multifaceted approach to the heroin epidemic, because it is an epidemic,” he said.

That may already be happening. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine last week announced a Drug Epidemic Community Meeting set for 3:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Counseling Center at 411 Court St., Portsmouth. A panel of experts will discuss their perspectives on opiate abuse.

Northern Kentucky’s multilevel approach is already making an impact on other cities in Kentucky.

“Because of their efforts, Lexington is also mobilizing in a very similar format, bringing in surrounding communities,” Van Ingram, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said. “Hopefully we can emulate this in other areas of the state.”

Both Ohio and Northern Kentucky have “a medical champion”: Dr. Jeremy Engel, a Northern Kentucky family doctor, and Dr. Judith Feinberg, a University of Cincinnati professor of medicine and expert in infectious diseases in Ohio, said Ann Barnum, senior program officer of Interact for Health, formerly the Greater Cincinnati Health Foundation.

Their approaches are different: Engel’s first objective was to prevent deaths; Feinberg’s was to prevent the spread of infectious disease.

Feinberg has been leading a six-year effort in Ohio to get needle-exchange programs in place in Hamilton County.

Springdale was the first to agree this spring to a program this spring that will create an infectious disease prevention program that includes needle exchange.

Northern Kentucky was better poised to handle the unforeseen crisis.

“Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties have a history of looking at problems from a regional perspective,” Ingram said. “They think regionally, not just ‘where my city is,’ ‘where my county is.’ ”

Regional planning efforts were already in place, said Barnum, as well as KY-ASAP, the Agency for Substance Abuse Policy that coordinates efforts among state and local agencies.

Northern Kentucky also had Charlotte Wethington of Kenton County, whose son Matthew “Casey” Wethington died in 2002 of a heroin overdose at 23. Wethington initiated the fight for Casey’s Law, which lets loved ones of heroin addicts pursue court-ordered treatment.

The law went into effect in 2004. Ohio’s court-ordered treatment law went into effect in March 2012.

“Just one year ago the Northern Kentucky community, while suffering from a tremendous heroin epidemic, was largely unaware of its presence or impact,” said Robert Schrage, a member of the chamber’s health committee. “Today that has changed, and the community is much more aware and united in the need to confront and fight this epidemic.”

Caswell points to Engel as the catalyst for the heroin response.

“Dr. Engel came and very bluntly told us about the heroin epidemic,” the chamber’s Caswell said. “Everyone was nodding. Everyone had seen it. It set the wheels in motion for stakeholders.”

Feinberg said Northern Kentuc­ky’s geographical makeup – with small communities close together – made it easier for the heroin work group to move ahead.

Hamilton County has five health departments and four hospital systems. Northern Kentucky has one health department and one hospital system, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, with five hospitals, Barnum pointed out. Engel is a St. E physician.

Northern Kentucky residents were initially shocked heroin reached into their small communities, said Dr. Mina “Mike” Kalfas, a certified addiction specialist and family doctor with the Northern Kentucky heroin work group.

In Northern Kentucky, it seems everyone knows or at least knows of someone addicted to heroin. “Everybody we’re talking to – a new business person, a new citizen, a first responder – is telling their story, ” Caswell said.

It’s a call to action, leaders in both states say. ■

I write the human side of issues that affect people in Covington, Newport and Campbell County. Email me at tdemio@nky.com.